A person's legal identity is a precious item. Often, an identity is manifested in the form of various vital documents. This includes birth certificates, drivers' licenses, passports, insurance cards, residency cards, social security cards and military identification. Many of these items are difficult to replace. In addition, these types of vital documents also are often needed to prove an identity in order to receive replacement documentation or otherwise prove identity. This issue becomes an extraordinary problem when an unexpected disaster falls upon an individual.
For example, a fire that destroys a home may very well ruin all of a person's belongings, including vital documents. After such a tragedy, that person would have the additional hassle of replacing such documents within a scenario where he or she may not even have a wallet left to prove their actual identity to a government official. This often results in hours—if not days or weeks—of hassle and bureaucracy in the midst of a tragedy. Moreover, this situation is not limited to fires. Natural disasters such as tornados, hurricanes and floods all have resulted in complete destruction of documents. While such protective items as fireproof safes are helpful in protecting vital documents, even these types of protective measures either are not completely secure or are exceptionally expensive for average consumers. A person in this situation would also have difficulty retrieving these documents in an outside safety deposit box because in order to access or seek a new key to many of these boxes, a proper identification is required. Because of these facts, there is a need for a system that provides easy access to high-quality versions of these vital records.
Disasters at home also are not the only tragedies that can affect vital documents. For example, travelers in some foreign countries may lose their passport. Or a domestic traveler may lose his or her wallet and all of its identification. When these circumstances occur, it is increasingly difficult for a traveler to do much of anything, let alone seek shelter, food or travel home. The reason, again, is that the person would not have any sort of identification needed to access various options toward bettering the situation or recouping funds. This scenario further highlights the need for a system that provides easy access to high-quality versions of vital identification documents.
Beyond the tragic and helpless scenarios, it is also a wise decision to safely store high-quality copies of vital records in a secure and completely protected medium. People are often asked to present copies of their social security card or birth certificate. But when they lose their originals or copies in hand, these people must navigate through the bureaucracy, fill out forms and wait in long lines. And that will be successful only if they have other identification documents. This issue can be even more urgent for a person seeking to replace a green card. From this, it is clear that a need exists for a system to allow users to scan high-resolution copies of their vital documents into a secure server, where all they would need to do is enter a password and/or other personal information to retrieve high quality printed copies on demand. The present invention satisfies this need by establishing a system where people can utilize a kiosk to place these vital documents in an encrypted server for later retrieval on demand. The present invention applies security measures at all levels of the system to ensure safe identity protection. The present invention is needed because it provides one secure location for the storage of personal or business documents.
The present invention is unique and solves many problems—both real and potential—relating to the storage of vital document images. For example, it is quite common for people to send themselves an email with an attachment of a document they scanned themselves. However, this method is not completely secure as it is well documented that users with accounts on such areas as YAHOO!™ and HOTMAIL™ sometimes find that all documents have been purged. These and other electronic storage options also fail to achieve the speed and security elements that are prevalent with the present invention. For example, an emailed attachment to a current consumer server is not prefaced and veiled in all-encompassing security, as is the present invention. An onlooker conceivably can watch a user at a traditional computer type in his or her password in order to eventually comprise the security of the files. The user also has more hoops to jump through with less assurance of security in contrast to the speedy aspects of the present invention.
Even so-called secure storage servers such as the military “IPERMS” system is flawed in terms of user friendly speed and conciseness. With “IPERMS”, a service member must submit his or her military records through a chain of command and civilian bureaucracy at the unit level, where the documents are scanned through a military network and forwarded to a human resources attendant. That human resources attendant then plugs the same scanned image of military records into the “IPERMS” system where a service member may retrieve the images via online connection. While “IPERMS” operates through a secure server, the user must still retrieve these documents via an online connection. This entails entering a military ID card into a Web site sometimes called “Army Knowledge Online” or “Defense Knowledge Online.” From that Web site, the user must then click onto “IPERMS” and type in a password and username again. From there, a confusing list of documents with arbitrary listings awaits the user in a tedious and time-consuming manner. The present invention, in contrast, actually offers increased overall security over the documents while lessening the time and energy involved in comparison to “IPERMS” and similar storage items. In addition, the present invention offers the user an opportunity to review his or her documents to ensure the highest quality scan, whereas other items such as “IPERMS” are not known for quality images. Also, systems such as “IPERMS” take the control of the documents submitted out of the hands of the user, because with “IPERMS,” third and often fourth parties must take control and decide what is stored. In the present invention, the user controls what information and how much information is stored without dealing through additional people.
Another difference between the present invention and scanning personal documents on a traditional business scanner is that these business machines potentially may archive a record of this document. This causes significant security issues for the user wishing to store images of his or her vital records. The present invention, in contrast, protects the user by permitting him or her a completely secure avenue for storing vital documents. A similar issue relates to scanners at commercial outlets as well. Moreover, home scanners are not secure and susceptible to interception via wired or wireless routers. In addition, images that are scanned from a home scanner will either be stored on a disk or hard drive that potentially can be damaged or fail. The present invention, meanwhile, deploys secure kiosks at designated public locations such as banks, post offices, libraries, office courtyards, doctors' offices, hospitals and veterinary offices. These kiosks permit users to immediately receive vital documents and quickly and securely upload their images into the secure server of the present invention.
Unlike conventional email and server systems such as “IPERMS,” the present invention spares the user of the need to type and label information relating to the item to be scanned. Instead, a user of the present invention merely pushes pre-designated buttons at a kiosk, which has the additional veil of security through the use of a display screen that only a user looking straight ahead may view its contents.